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Chapter 72: Domestication
If men were present, they would be more concerned about why the adult lynx died and whether the corpse was still useful, while the women's attention was attracted by the fluffy cubs, stroking their soft and warm hair, and couldn't put it down .

"Poor little ones..." Qionghua said, "They can't survive without their mother."

"I heard from my mother that lynx meat is sour and not tasty."

"And they're skinny and boneless, and there's not much meat to eat."

"Why don't you take it home and raise it?" Someone suggested, "It's like raising rabbits and bamboo rats."

When the food is sufficient, the men will capture some wild rabbits and bamboo rats and bring them back into captivity. This is not domestication in the true sense, but a special food preservation technology, which is used as a winter reserve.The winter is long, so you can't just rely on smoked jerky, but occasionally you have to eat some fresh meat as well.

Lanhua knew that women were soft-hearted, and she felt pity for the three cubs, but she was very clear-headed and said seriously: "Lynx eat meat."

Although the tribe does not lack meat now, it is not enough to feed wild animals with meat, not to mention that lynx meat is not delicious, so what is the use of raising it?

Lin Yu said: "We can feed them with broth and internal organs, and when they grow up, let them go foraging by themselves. The grains and nuts stored in the cave are often eaten by mice, right? Lynxes are used to catch mice. Keeping them in the cave can protect our food from being stolen."

Rats in the original language generally refer to small rodents, mainly murines, not the rats that everyone shouts and beats in later generations.

Rats are a major threat to food, and they are also carriers and disseminators of various viruses. Humans have been fighting with them for hundreds of thousands of years. Both sides are evolving, and the winner has not yet been decided.

The earliest cats were domesticated to deal with these rats.

However, raising lynxes purely for the purpose of eradicating rats is a bit overkill. Adult lynxes can fully assist in hunting.

In the aristocratic circle in the heyday of Tang Dynasty, there was a trend of domesticating lynx. When the nobles went out on horseback or hunted, lynx would sit on horseback with people and walk through the streets with great style.

Lin Yu thought so in his heart, but he didn't say it out loud. The clansmen had no concept of domesticating wild animals for their own use. They wouldn't believe this kind of thing. Only when they saw it with their own eyes would they accept it from the bottom of their hearts.

Honghua smiled and said, "It seems that Lin really likes these cubs, look how tightly she hugs them!"

Orchid also showed a gentle smile.

It’s rare to see that Lin has something he particularly likes, and what she said is right, the cave is seriously infested with rats, and every year the food stored for the winter will be destroyed by at least half of those animals. If the little lynx has the ability to catch mice and repel insects, It was a great help.

No matter how bad it is, you can kill it and have a full meal at any time.

Thinking of this, she nodded and agreed: "Okay, take it back and talk about it later."

……

The hunting party is the last to return to the cave.

The first thing to do when you return is to see how the pottery is being fired.

The children covered the top of the pottery kiln with wooden boards in strict accordance with his requirements, and no one was allowed to touch it.

Until Zhang Tian came back, the wooden boards were still covered, and a faint smoke escaped from the gaps. The firewood that had piled up into mountains before he left had now been reduced to ashes all over the place.

He touched the outer surface of the kiln, and it was warm to the touch, and it was almost cooled.

He lifted the wooden board a little nervously, and the hot air in the kiln mixed with the strong smell of smoke rushed to his face.

He fanned it with his hands, and looked at the orange-red pottery and bricks in the kiln, and his heart was half relieved immediately.

He tapped the bottom of the pot with his knuckles, making a clear sound like a bell.

Zhang Tian grinned. He knew that making this sound meant that the pottery was not cracked.

Take out the two pots, four jars and eight bowls, only two bowls have cracks, which should be caused by uneven kneading of mud.

The rest of the pottery was intact and even in color. Although the body of the pottery was not glazed, it was smooth enough. Compared with the clay fragments caught from the bottom of the river before, it was probably thousands of years ahead.

He showed a satisfied smile, but suddenly felt that something was missing.

Looking around, the open space outside the cave is dark and cold, only the mountain wind howls tirelessly, the branches and leaves in the forest tremble, and sometimes a perching bird starts up and cries, which further reflects the loneliness of the autumn night.

He suddenly realized: there is no audience today!

No wonder I felt something was missing. It turned out that the shock and rainbow farts of the clansmen were missing.

He felt strange that Xiao Xiao didn't come out to observe the situation after wandering outside for so long, and Chef Lin kept saying that he wanted to show his skills, but he didn't come out to care about the quality of the cooking utensils.

"The pottery is ready!"

Zhang Tianchao shouted in the cave.

He fully expected that the clansmen would rush out to observe new things, but in the end, they only waited for Lin Yu to say: "How is the burning? Bring it in and let me have a look!"

"..."

"I'm coming!"

Only Xiao ran out, with an old father-like smile on his face.

Zhang Tiantian blinked vigorously to confirm that he was not mistaken, and there was indeed an old father-like smile on Xiao's face.

"What are you doing?" He was very puzzled.

Xiao grinned and said, "Mom and the others brought back three lynx cubs, about the size of my palm, and they said they were going to be kept in the cave to catch mice! You, me and Lin, each of us raised one. !"

"A lynx...?"

Zhang Tian couldn't laugh or cry, who would have thought that the first wild animal the tribe tried to domesticate was the lynx, cats are not familiar with them!
"Is this pottery?"

Xiao squatted down and observed carefully. Song Guo had described the appearance of the pottery, saying that it was as dark as a stone, and the inside had been hollowed out so that it could be used to hold things.

"Why is it red?"

"Normal ones should be red, and those with poor quality are black or variegated."

Pottery fired in the open air is usually mainly reddish-brown, but if more plant stems, leaves, shells, etc. are mixed into the clay, during the firing process, the plants will be charred, which will make the pottery appear black and have a relatively thick texture. loose.

Xiao poked it with his finger and said in surprise, "It's really hardened!"

He remembered that it was still mud in the morning, but when he burned it with fire, it really turned into stone!
The two carried the fired pottery into the cave, and then the clansmen who were obsessed with teasing cats gathered around one after another, knocking on the pottery, and the crisp sound was endless.

Everyone was also amazed. They didn't understand how the soft soil suddenly turned into a hard stone, and it was a stone whose stomach had been hollowed out. Isn't this a natural storage device!
Zhang Tian filled each pottery with water and conducted a water seepage test.

Although human beings started firing pottery as early as 2 years ago, it was after entering the farming society that the durable and impermeable high-quality pottery was really fired... This is the useless cold knowledge that Dr. Lin told him.

"Just squeeze the mud into various shapes and burn it for a day, and it will turn into stone?"

"To be precise, it turned into pottery. Although pottery is also very hard, it is much more brittle than stone."

Everyone is unknown, so they still don't have a clear understanding of the various physical properties of objects.

Zhang Tian picked up a stone from the ground, held a cracked pottery bowl with the other hand, let go from the same height, and the stone and pottery bowl fell to the ground at the same time, which not only proved that the acceleration of gravity has nothing to do with mass, but also proved that pottery is not a stone ——Because the stone was safe and sound, but the pottery bowl shattered to the ground in an instant.

(End of this chapter)